Nigeria pumping 1.74 mln bpd crude oil: NNPC

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LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria is currently pumping 1.739 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil and 560,000 bpd of condensate, the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said on Monday.

The total amount of production shut in by years of militant attacks and funding shortfalls currently stood at 1.26 million bpd, NNPC spokesman Levi Ajuonoma told Reuters.

Industry experts say Nigeria has never been able to produce at its full installed capacity of 3 million bpd, due to violence in the Niger Delta and to funding problems.

Royal Dutch Shell said on Monday it had shut in some production while it investigated reports of attacks on two well clusters in its Estuary Field in the western Niger Delta, which feeds into its Forcados oil export terminal.

“They had to stop production because the pipeline that leads to the terminal is the one that has been destroyed,” Ajuonoma said, but added Forcados exports were continuing from three cargoes — between 2-3 million barrels — of stocks.

He said the impact of the Forcados outage had been counterbalanced by higher production of Bonny Light crude oil, which is exported from the eastern Niger Delta.